Is Howard Stern Going Soft or Just Getting Sharper?

Originally Published: Washington Post • December 14, 2015

“The Howard Stern Show” isn’t what it used to be, which is either evidence of his professional genius or a crying shame.

“You used to say bad things about me,” Madonna mused during a recent appearance on his satellite radio program. It’s true: He panned her acting; he dished filthy gossip about her. But now he was interviewing her as respectfully as an ambassador, drawing out stories about the time she dated rapper Tupac Shakur and her harrowing rape as a teenager. She cited her belief in the “science” of astrology, and her host didn’t utter so much as a snort.

“I used to say bad things about everybody,” Stern said, with an air of apology. “I was an angry young man.”

Those who stopped tuning in when the pioneer of shock jock culture left terrestrial radio for satellite a decade ago have no idea what they’re missing…